Reinforcing element



NOV. 10, 1970 W EFAL REINFORCING ELEMENT 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 9,1969 Inventor.- ommu Mons? 000! NOV. 10, 1970 WOLF ETAL 3,538,702

REINFORCING ELEMENT Filed Oct. 9, 1969 v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inventoro'usrw mm? F1112. swasmmorv United States Patent 3,538,702 REINFORCINGELEMENT Gustav Horst Wolf and Fritz Singenstroth, Gutersloh, Germany,assignors to Firma Gustav Wolf, Seilund Drahtwerke, Gutersloh, GermanyFiled Oct. 9, 1969, Ser. No. 865,217 Claims priority, applicationGermany, Oct. 16, 1968,

1,803,316 Int. Cl. D07b 1/00, 1/22 US. Cl. 57145 19 Claims ABSTRACT OFTHE DISCLOSURE An elongated parallel-stranded element has a crosssectionresembling a polygon with a predetermined number of corners and includesa first plurality of inner strands corresponding'to the predeterminednumber of corners of the polygon and a second plurality of outer strandstogether surrounding the inner strands and correa BACKGROUND OF THEINVENTION The present invention relates to stranded articles, and moreparticularly to parallel-stranded articles. Still more specifically thepresent invention relates to reinforcing elements, particularly thosewhich may with advantage be used in reinforcing rubber and syntheticplastic materials.

It is already known to provide such reinforcing elements. conventionallythese are in form of braided wires, cables or ropes of circularcross-section, composed of a plurality of individual strands. Thesurface of these reinforcing elements is comparatively smooth because ofthe large number of strands involved and because of the manner in whichthe strands are interwoven, and therefore there is relatively littleadhesion between the surface and the surrounding mass of material,whether it be rubber or synthetic plastic material. Furthermore, thesereinforcing elements utilize a central reinforcing wire or core andbecause of this, and because of their overall construction, are capableof withstanding quite high tensile stresses. However, they have littleflexibility, regardless of whether they are subjected to tensile orcompressive stresses, because of the large number of individual strandsinvolved and also because of the presence of the reinforcing core.

Another type of reinforcing element used for the purposes at hand is inform of a stranded element wherein the strands are arranged inparallelism. Here, all individual strands have linear contact which isobtained by variously dimensioning the individual strands, that is thecross-section thereof. Of course, a number of stranded elements may beunited to form a cable or rope, and this may take place in the sameoperating procedure in which the stranded elements themselves aremanufactured, that is immediately subsequent to the manufacture of thestranded elements. The cable or rope may be manufactured according tothe parallel-stranding technique and may utilize as strands elements ofcircular cross-section or those which have been themselves made inparallelstranded configuration. The customary technical termi- 3,538,702Patented Nov. 10, 1970 nology used for designating these parallelconstructions are Filler, Scale and Warrington.

The problem with all of these constructions resides in the fact thatwhen embedded in rubber or synthetic plastic material, they provideinadequate adhesion with the surrounding material because of thecross-sectional configuration and because of the comparative smoothnessof their surfaces. A further disadvantage resides in the fact that theseknown constructions have inadequate flexibility which disadvantageouslyinfluences the flexibility characteristics of the embedding materialitself, and that they require a comparatively large quantity of strandsand therefore a fairly significant expenditure of material.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, accordingly, an object of the presentinvention to provide a parallel-stranded element of the type underdiscussion which is not subject to the aforementioned disadvantages.

More particularly it is an object of the present invention to providesuch a parallel-stranded element which does not utilize a centralreinforcing core or wire and is considerably more flexible than thosewhich are known from the art.

An additional object of the present invention is to provide such anelement which provides improved adhesion with rubber or syntheticplastic material in which it is embedded.

A concommitant object of the invention is to provide an element of thetype under discussion which requires less material for its construction.

In pursuance of the above objects, and others which will become apparenthereafter, one feature of the present invention resides in a novelarticle of manufacture in form of a member which is, briefly stated,composed of at least one elongated parallel-stranded element having asection resembling a polygon with a predetermined number of corners,such element including a first plurality of inner strands correspondingto this predetermined number and a second plurality of outer strandswhich together surround the inner strands and which correspond to triplethe predetermined number.

The construction according to the present invention is such that, asalready suggested above, each of the inner strands has associated withit three outer strands, and according to the invention one of the threeouter strands has a cross-sectional area which is greater than that ofthe remaining two outer strands. The element according to the presentinvention does not have a reinforcing wire or core.

It will be appreciated that with the element according to the presentinvention the total number of strands required is comparatively small asrelated to the known constructions, thus resulting in a saving inmaterial. Furthermore, the novel element is highly flexible and ispossessed, because of the ratio 1:3 of inner to outer strands, of acomparatively rough or uneven outer surface and therefore has muchimproved adherence to the material in which it is embedded. Theflexibility of the element is further enhanced by the helically twistedconfiguration of each of the strands, and the surface of an elementconstructed according to the present invention-4o which surface theembedding material adheres-is greater by approximately 10% than what hasbeen possible in the prior art.

It goes without saying that a plurality of the novel elements may beunited to form a rope or cable, and that in such a rope or cable theelements will be arranged and present in numbers in the same manner inwhich strands are arranged at present in each individual ele- 3 ment.The advantages of such a rope or cable are the same as those of theindividual element.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic for theinvention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. Theinvention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method ofoperation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, willbe best understood from the following description of specificembodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a diagrammaticcross-sectional view of an element according to the present invention,utilizing two inner strands;

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 but utilizing three inner strands;

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1 but utilizing four inner strands;

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of a rope or cablecomposed of a plurality of individual elements according to the presentinvention, and being provided with three of these elements and the innerelements of the cable; and

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 illustrating yet a further embodimentof the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Before entering into a detaileddiscussion of the drawing it is thought necessary to emphasize that inall five figures the illustration is in form of a diagrammatic crosssection. In other words, it is not thought necessary to show actualcross-section of sectioned material, but instead only to indicatediagrammatically the arrangement of the individual strands or elementswith reference to one another.

Discussing now firstly the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 it will beseen that this is of an elongated parallelstranded element according tothe present invention. The making and final appearance ofparallel-stranded ropes, wires, litz etc. are already well known tothose skilled in the art and require no detailed discussion. Inaccordance with the present invention, however, the element shown inFIG. 1 comprises two inner strands 1 and 2 which may be wires or thelike of various different materials, for instance metal, vitreousmaterial, synthetic plastic material or a combination of two or more ofthese materials. Thus, it is clear that for instance one of the strandscould be of one material and another strand of a different material, andso on. Each inner strands has associated therewith in accordance withthe present invention three outer strands. In FIG. 1 the inner strand 1has associated with it the outer strands 3, 4 and 5; the inner strand 2has associated with it the outer strands 6, 7 and 8. It will be seenthat the outer strands 3-8 surround the inner strands and that there isalways one of the three outer strands associated with each inner strandwhich has a cross-sectional area larger than that of the remaining twoouter strands. In other words, of the outer strands associated with theinner strand 1, the strand 5 has a larger cross-sectional area than thestrands 3 and 4; similarly, of the outer strands associated with theinner strand 2 in FIG. 1, the strands 8 has a larger cross-sectionalarea than the outer strands 6 and 7. By so varying the cross-sectionalarea of the outer strands, the resulting product has a very uneven outersurface whose overall surface area is significantly greater than whathas been known from other elements heretofore taught in the art, forinstance on the order of approximately 10% greater. This greatlyimproves the adhesion of the novel element to material in which it isembedded, such as rubber or synthetic plastic material.

Furthermore, the individual strands 1-8 contact one another only along aline, that is they have merely line contact with the result that a largepart of the surface 4 of each individual strand is not supported so thatwhen the element is subjected to tensile or compressive stresses, theflexibility of each individual strand is hampered only very little withthe result that the total element has a considerably improvedflexibility over what is known from the prior art.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2 the overall cross-sectionalconfiguration of the illustrated element resembles substantially atriangle. Accordingly, they are provided with three inner strands 9, 10and 11 each of which has associated with it three outer strands,identified in the case of the inner strand 9 with reference numerals 9a,9b and 9c, in the case of the inner strand 10 with reference numerals10a, 10b and 10c and in the case of the inner strand 11 with referencenumerals 11a, 11b and 110. The considerations and advantages outlinedwith reference to the embodiment in FIG. 1 are fully applicable withreference to the embodiment in FIG. 2.

The embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3 is of an element having asubstantially quadratic cross-section with the inner strands beingidentified with reference numerals 12, 13, 14 and 15, that is therebeing provided four inner strands corresponding to the number of cornersin the quadratic cross-section of the element. Each of the inner strandshas associated with it three outer strands, two of which are of lessercross-sectional area than the third one. The outer strands associatedwith the inner strand 12 are identified with reference numerals 12a, 12band 120. The outer strands are associated with the inner strand 13 andare identified with reference numerals 13a, 13b and 130, thoseassociated with the inner strand 14 are identified with referencenumerals 14a, 14b and and those associated with inner strand 15 areidentified with reference numerals 15a, .1512 and 150.

It will be evident from a consideration of the FIGS. 1-3 and from whathas been set forth in the description of these figures, that a generalformula may be derived for the construction of a parallel-strandedelement according to the present invention, in that an element whosecross-section resembles a polygon having n corners is provided with ninner strands and with three times n outer strands. Inasmuch as it hasalready been pointed out earlier that a rope or cable may be constructedon the same principle as an individual parallelstranded element, itfollows that such a rope or cable may be constructed in accordance withthe same formula, except that instead of inner and outer strands it willutilize inner and outer stranded elements, for instance of the typeshown in FIGS. 1-3. The relationships set forth above with reference tothe individual element and its strands are true also of such ropes orcables.

FIG. 4 shows a rope or cable constructed of indi vidualparallel-stranded elements and having an overall construction resemblingthat shown with respect to the construction of the element in FIG. 2. Inother words, the cross-sectional configuration of the cable in FIG. 4resembles generally a triangle and accordingly the cable has three innerparallel-stranded elements 16, 17 and 18 each of which has associatedwith it three outer parallelstranded elements, that is the elements 16a,16b, 16c, 17a, 17b, and 18a, 18b, 18c. Again, one of each of the set ofthree outer elements has a larger crosssectional area than the othertwo, this being the case in the outer elements 160, 17c and 180.

It is emphasized that in producing a rope or cable according to thepresent invention the parallel-stranded elements in FIGS. 1-3 may beutilized, or others produced on the principle enunciated earlier. Thisis suggested in the cross-sectional showing of the element 17 In FIG. 4.It is pointed out, however, that it is also posslble to produce such arope or cable from stranded elements according to the prior art, that isthose which are not parallel-stranded but instead are of circularcrosssection. This is suggested in FIG. 4 by the cross-sectional showingof the element 180. If a rope or cable is completely made from elementssuch as suggested at 18c, then the flexibility and outer surface areawill still be considerably enhanced over what is known from the priorart, although somewhat less than if the rope or cable were produced inpart or entirely from parallel-stranded elements according to thepresent invention. From what has been said it follows, incidentally,that parallelstranded elements according to the present invention assuggested with reference numeral 17 in FIG. 4, and conventionalcircular-cross-sectional braided elements as suggested with referencenumeral 180 in FIG. 4, may both be utilized in one and the same rope orcable.

Conversely, a rope or cable of circular cross-section may be produced inaccordance with the teachings of the prior art. This is suggested inFIG. 5. According to the present invention, however, such rope or cablemay utilize parallel-stranded elements according to the presentinvention, as suggested in FIG. with reference numeral 19 which isintended to indicate that the individual elements of thecircular-cross-sectional rope or cable in FIG. 5 may for instance be ofthe construction shown in FIG. 2. Reference numeral 19 in FIG. 5indicates a substantially triangular cross-section as shown in chainlines which replaces, of course, the conventional circular cross-sectionof the individual elements which has been shown in full lines in FIG. 5.In other words, each of the diagrammatically illustrated elements whichmake up the circular-cross-section cable of FIG. 5 has been shown inconventional manner as being itself of circular-crosssection forfacilitating explanation. According to the present invention each ofthese elements is to be replaced with an element constructed accordingto the present invention, for instance an element -19 based on theconstruction shown in FIG. 2. It follows then that the resultingcable-while still having a substantially circularcross-section-will beprovided with a considerably more uneven and larger surface area thanwas heretofore the case.

It will be appreciated that elements or ropes or cables according to thepresent invention may not only be straight but may for instance beendless, that is their opposite ends may be connected so that they areringshaped. The latter type of configuration may be used to particularadvantage if the elements are used as reinforcing elements in e.g.vehicle tires.

It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or twoor more together, may also find a useful application in other types ofconstructions differing from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in arope, cable or the like, it is not intended to be limited to the detailsshown, since various modifications and structural changes may be madewithout departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent isset forth in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. As a novel article of manufacture, a member composed of at least oneelongated parallel-stranded flexible element having a cross-sectionresembling a polygon with a predetermined number of corners, saidelement including a first plurality of inner strands corresponding tosaid predetermined number, and a second plurality of outer strandstogether surrounding said inner strands and corresponding to triple saidpredetermined number.

2. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein two thirdsof said outer strands have a crosssectional area smaller than that ofthe remaining third of said outer strands.

3. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein said outerstrands are arranged circumferentially of said element adjacent oneanother, each strand of said 6 remaining third alternating with twostrands of said two thirds.

4. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein said firstplurality comprises two inner strands.

5. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein said firstplurality comprises four inner strands.

6. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein said firstplurality comprises three inner strands.

7. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein said strandsare wires.

8. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein said innerand outer strands are exclusively in line contact with one another.

9. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein said strandsconsist of metallic material.

10. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein saidstrands consist of synthetic plastic material.

11. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein saidstrands consist of vitreous material.

12. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein saidstrands consist of a combination of at least two materials from thegroup comprising metallic materials, synthetic plastic materials andvitreous materials.

13. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein said memberis ring-shaped.

14. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 1, wherein said memberis a parallel-stranded member and includes additional flexible elementssimilar to the firstmentioned element, a first number of said elementsbeing interior elements and a second number constituting the remainderof said elements being exterior elements surrounding said inner elementswith said second number of exterior elements being triple said firstnumber of interior elements.

15. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 14, wherein saidinterior elements comprise at least two discrete elements.

16. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 14,

wherein said member is of polygonal cross-section.

17. An article of manufacture as defined in claim 14, wherein saidmember is of substantially circular crosssection.

.18. As a novel article of manufacture a parallelstranded flexiblemember composed of a plurality of elongated flexible elements at leastsome of which are of substantially circular cross-section, said memberhaving a cross-section resembling a polygon with a predetermined numberof corners and including a first plurality of inner elementscorresponding to said predetermined number, and a second plurality ofouter elements corresponding to triple said predetermined number.

19. As a novel article of manufacture, a flexible number of circularcross-section composed of a plurality of parallel-stranded flexibleelements at least some of which have a cross-section resembling apolygon with a predetermined number of corners, and are composed of afirst plurality of inner strands corresponding to said predeterminednumber and a second plurality of outer strands together surrounding saidinner strands and corresponding to triple said predetermined number.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,999,502 4/1935 Hall 57-145 XR2,605,201 7/1952 Howe 57145 2,620,618 12/ 1952 Chamoux 57-145 3,295,310l/ 1967 Beighley 57145 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,034,328 6/ 1966 Great Britain.

1,038,938 8/1966 Great Britain.

DONALD E. WATKINS, Primary Examiner.

